Getting it Done

One of my many projects to get done before Easter is finally finished and "installed," as my carpenter husband would say.  I have had this mirror and table for a good five years and wanted to get them painted and put to good use. I am linking to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for this project.

My mirror and table after sanding

Taped and primered.

Before I show the finished and installed mirror, I wanted to show you what was on the wall above my table in the entry . It came down before I got my "before" picture.

It is very special to me, given to my by one of my sons and his wife, but at Christmas when I put some silver on this table in my entry way, I knew I wanted my mirror above it and I finally got it.

There has always been this "empty spot next to my red and white chair. (Just can't stand an empty spot)

So my table found it's home there, along with the lamp and tulips that were on the entry table before the silver.

Another picture, so you can see where it is in relationship to the mirror.

I have a lot of white furniture and with the black in the entry and black accents I have in my kitchen, I really wanted this table to be black. It is really too shiny to suit me, but asking my hubby to sand it right now....well he just wouldn't understand....for another day maybe.

I actully have nothing on the table except the lamp right now.  I think I will leave it that way for a while. You won't often see an empty spot around my house.  As much as I try to simplify and tell my self  "less is more" or whatever that silly saying  is, I just have to fill up those "empty spots"

I have another project started to finish tomorrow.  It has to do with my pantry which is in my laundry room next to the powder room.  I can't wait to share that too.

Be sure to stop by Between Naps on the Porch and check out Susan's Metamorphosis Monday post and all of the other creative people who have posted theirs.

Easter (Dress) Parade

Just when I think I am making a little headway in the photo thing, I get so humbled. The pictures I took today were the hardest I have done yet.  Just bare with me as I had such a hard time making these darling dresses look good. Part of it is lighting, I'm sure, but just positioning them so they hung right or didn't have wrinkles where there shouldn't be wrinkles was excruciating.  I think I need a child's manequin that adjusts to size.  Well, maybe not because I will have the real girls to model them for me on Easter. So here is a little preview of what's to come.

This is Emmy's (my newest born on March 7th).

I love paying attention to detail, so the button on the back matches the ones on the little shoes and the eyelet on the front has little hearts on it and matches her older sisters jackets.

This one is Brooke's

The jacket by itself, because some just did not photo well with the hanger and jacket.

Camy's

Lexi's (picked this color for her because it matches her eyes)

Drew's (I didn't realize it, but the last 3 things I have made her have had aqua in them. Luckily she loves aqua)

Those are the girls dresses for my youngest son, Brandon's family.

I still like to make them all match so the next one is for Kobi, who is my middle son, Eric's daughter.

The last one is for Madi, who is 13 yrs.old and my oldest son, Scott's daughter.  I know soon, she might not want to wear something her grandmother made her, so I e-mailed her a picture of the pattern for her approval.  Her's is the same fabric as the baby's.

There you go,  all those polka dots are now dresses.

Whew!! They are finished and I still have 9 days to finish Easter decorating, some home redo projects, fluffing and poofing for company (the whole family plus extended family members), cleaning and cooking. But, you know, as I have said before....I love it all and wouldn't have it any other way.  I promise some pictures of the dresses on the real live models after Easter.  They will look so much better. I only wish I had the time to make something for my three grandsons too.....oh well, maybe next year.

Break Time

I took a little break this morning to go to an Estate sale with friends. My friends Ruth and Gail and I started out and got there just as they opened the doors. It really wasn't great as Estate sales go, and prices were high, but it's the thrill of the hunt....right?

This is all I found there, but the prices on these at 1.00 each was good and even though the embroidery wasn't perfect, I love the crocheted edgings and I always look for that.

Since it was Friday, we couldn't find any other sales in the area and it was still early, so we decided to check out the closest GW and Salvation Army stores.

At the Salvation Army, I found these plates.

 

They were a bargain as priced, but when I got to the register they were 1/2 of that.

They say Japan and Stainless on the back and probably aren't worth much, but I didn't pay much and they just had my name on them. Can you tell?

Oh, and the little bird was one of my treasures from the GW. He was dirty and scuffed and Gail and Ruth both laughed and asked if  I was going to put him in the dishwasher.....no not me.....I had read somewhere to use a toothbrush and toothpaste and as you can see, he is shiny and white and smells good too.

This old white mixer bowl came from Salvation Army too. I just can't resist these and yes, I can put it in the dishwasher. (Dishwasher/bird story on Blue and White post on March 6th)

        

Oh, and this cute little potholder came from the Estate sale....$1.00

We were home before noon with our treasures and I got back to my Easter Dress sewing.

Guess I'd better get back to that now too. They are turning out so cute, can't wait to show them off.

Polka Dots were the right choice.

So Busy, Oh So Busy!

I am so thankful for friends that have noticed I haven't been as faithful with my blogging lately. It was good to be reminded of that today by my friend Ruth.

No excuses really. All I can say is I have been busy with life.

Busy doing this:

Sewng 7 Easter Dresses

Busy doing this:

Weeding and cleaning flower beds (counted them-8 beds in the front yard only)

and planting some Spring color.

Busy doing this:

Getting the house decorated for Easter

Busy doing this:

Cooking more because my sweetie has been working in town the last 2 weeks and because my youngest son and his sweet wife just had baby # 6 (more on that later)

Picture is from here: The Pioneer Women Cooks

They are undoubtedly the best meatballs ever...I could do a whole post on just these little balls of yumminess.

Busy doing this:

Just had to throw this one in of Cade (5yrs) at his first baseball game.

AND THIS:

Cuddling Emmy Lou, born March 7th.

Emmy and her family before leaving the hospital.

Emmy on her "Birth" Day. Big girl, she weighed 8lbs.9oz.

4 days old

One week old

Even though she is my # 10 grandbaby, the love I feel is for this precious little gift the Lord has blessed us with is overwhelming.  Just when I think my heart is full, I look into those little eyes and I melt all over again.

Just like our children, we love them all a little differently but completely.

And, just like our children, they grow up so fast. I want to enjoy every minute and in my heart, I know I must not be so busy as to miss anything.

So of all my busyness....only one of these things is what God wants of me. To Love with all my heart. That is my prayer.

Where's the Sunshine?

Last Friday, I visited my favorite Quilt store Strawberry Patches to purchase "Polka Dots" for six  seven (next post subject) Easter dresses. The owner Suzannne is a self confessed polkadotaholic. I had (I counted them) over 30 to choose from. No wonder it took me over 2 hours.

Didn't I do good to choose only 6?

  The white is eyelet that I had for the little jacket. My girls range from age 13 to newborn (Watch for next post)

I brought them home like this and plopped them down on the rock to take pictures.

Due to the gloomy weather we have had, it took me 2 days to get enough sun for pictures.

My Freesia had just started blooming and I wanted to post pictures because sadly they will be gone by Easter when I will post all my front yard pictures.

I know my neighbors think I am crazy.  I really got my exercise in getting these shots.  I am back in my sewing room, I see the sun peek out from the clouds, I grab my basket and camera and run the length of the house, plop the basket down again and the sun goes under a cloud. It was supposed to rain and did later, so I couldn't leave the basket. I can't even count the times I did this before I got what I thought would be enough pictures.

Boy, this blogging thing has really changed my perspective on things.

Okay, I can wait no longer....I am going to reveal the suprise for the next post.

My #10 grandbaby was born Sunday morning at 12:34am.  So.....I finally have permission from my DIL to post pictures of the baby and her family, so stay tuned....next post.... Baby Emmy.

Friends, Food, Fun and Fluffing

           For the last few months,(in between other projects) I have been working on Drapes and Roman Shades for my friend,

Gail's dining room and living room.  Last week I finished the shades for the living room and they were not quite what she and I had pictured, but we put our heads together and came up with a solution.

On Friday, she invited me and hubby over for dinner to add the finishing touches and to fluff them for pictures.

She fixed a great dinner and her sister and husband were there too. After dinner we played cards and laughed alot.  What a fun finish to an evening. And the reward of another sewing project finished just added to a great time with friends.

I have to say, when I sew for Gail, she has more confidence in me than I do in myself.  She designs what she wants...I have my doubts that I can do it, but somehow together, we make it work.

Someday, I'll share about the day, 36 years ago when she and her family moved in next door to us...although, from her viewpoint, she can  probably make it seem  more comical than I can.

This door is in the in dining area going out to the patio.

This window is to the right of the door and next to a corner of the dining area.

These are the the other two windows in dining area.

Now the living room which is to the left of the door.

She wanted a more casual shade here instead of the formal pleats of the shades in the dining room.  The fabric  helped with that effect because it was more soft and flowy. All of these shades will let down to cover the window for privacy.

Hmmm......wonder what she is dreaming up next.

Blue and White

This is the view of my wall if you are laying over one arm of Papaw's recliner, as my three year old grandson, Jack was doing one day last week when he just out of the "blue" said  "Mamaw, why do you have dishes on your wall?"  "Well" I said. "You know, if Mamaw is silly enough to have fake food all around the kitchen, then I am just silly enough to hang dishes on the the wall."  He just said "hummm." And that was the end of that.

So today as I was putting away my Valentines stuff and getting my hutch decorated again, I thought I would put some more of my blue and white dishes there and take pictures to share here. Before Christmas, it was full of my yellow dishes.

This is the view from the dining room. I liked it because you can see a reflection of the kitchen where I have my Colbalt Blue glassware displayed. I'll show that on another post.

This is the top shelf of my hutch with a couple more blue plates. As you can see, I still haven't put anything on top of the hutch to replace the pitchers I stole to put here:

This one and the one above are the middle shelf with a plate and a sugar bowl with no lid.  Also, two sweet little Alabaster birds. You should never, ever put Alabaster birds in the dishwasher. Ask any of my friends how I know that....Well, since you can't ask my friends (who still make fun of me for doing what I did), I will tell you, with a sheepish look on my face.

The first ones I bought were a little dirty (cheap, but dirty).  Like all of my milk glass I put them in the dishwasher thinking that would brighten them up.  Opened the dishwasher and no birds. I kept looking...I know I put them in there. You are probably a lot smarter than me and have already figured out what happened to them.  There was a little grainy residue in the bottom of the dishwasher....Yep, they dissolved.  So these babys will not go down that same road.

Two little plates.  Funny that one does not look quite that color in real life.

This last one is a cup and saucer that is one of my favorites. I pride myself in not paying much for things, so I sometimes pass up something if I think it is over priced.  I bought these along time ago separately and paid only .25 cents each for them.  For a long time I didn't even have them displayed together and one day I was dusting (don't do that often) and discovered that they were matching, so I had to go find one of these cute little stands to display them together.

Just wanted to share this last one so the whole hutch is visable. My youngest son built this for me. He is so good to take my cut out pictures from magzines of several different pieces of furniture and turning it into one beautiful piece.  I am so blessed with 3 sons and  a husband who all work with wood and make beautiful things with their hands....but the biggest blessing is that they are willing to do it for me.

This post is dedicated to my friend Mari Ellen who has emailed me and called me wanting to know why I hadn't posted anything in a while.  She is (she claims because of me) an addicted blogger like many of us and needed something new from me.

I really do have about 4 blog subjects  in mind right now, but because of weather and a couple of other problems haven't been able to get it together.

My next one will be showing you some window coverings I did for another friend. Finally got pictures at her house last night.

Another reminder to click on GiGi's Thimble on my side bar, as she has one more giveaway over at her blog.